The Perlin3D planets are now part of the game. P3D planet textures can be selected for each system independently by use of the planetinfo.plist boolean key perlin_3d. Lack of this key (or setting it to NO) will choose the standard texture method. Setting this key to YES in the "universal" section of planetinfo will make the Perlin 3D textures the default for all systens.

The default selection for planet textures is still the one we've had until now. Although Perlin3D textures are cool, there are two known issues at this time:
- Performance: There is a one or two seconds delay each time you press the F7 key for a P3D texture to be generated and displayed. Hyperspace jump sequence is also one or two seconds longer when entering a system sporting a P3D texture. This was observed on an old 2GHz Core2Duo, so on a more recent system this may not be such a problem. It would be good if this could be somewhat optimized though.
- The P3D textures appear to not be completely procedural. Sequential runs of the game produce slightly different textures each time for the same system. Land, sea and polar fractions, as well as cloud percentages are as expected, but the textures themselves do not repeat exactly between runs.

Both these two issues need to be investigated and resolved before P3D textures become standard. But including them in the game will enable their testing on a variety of systems and maybe give us some additional performance metrics. Oh, and they look good, too!

Performance: There is a one or two seconds delay each time you press the F7 key for a P3D texture to be generated and displayed. Hyperspace jump sequence is also one or two seconds longer when entering a system sporting a P3D texture. This was observed on an old 2GHz Core2Duo, so on a more recent system this may not be such a problem.

The same delay is there on my i5-4670K 4@3.8/GTX 770 machine, both on F7 and on hyperspace exit.

Yes, only a slight delay (under 1 second) for me as well. Fps drop to 130 on F7, run steady at 199 on F3, but if I've got a course plotted on F6 fps is around 100, 160 on F6 if no course plotted. In hyperspace I didn't notice much of a delay but with the planet in view fps is around 100 as soon as the planet leaves the field of view fps climb to 199.
my specs

Thanks to all who have posted feedback regarding performance. Just wanted to note that performance is expected to be affected only during the P3D texture generation. Once the texture for a system has been generated, it should behave like any normal planet texture. FPS will drop when a planet is in view, but I would expect this to be the case also with the standard planet textures.

In tomorrow's nightly, we will have a slightly darker default environment. The default ambient light level, which corresponds to the value of 1.0 has been reduced by a factor of 4. This change gives a better contrast between lit and unlit parts of models and makes the dark side of a planet appear actually dark.

Those who prefer the previous default appearance can restore it by mutliplying the ambient_level planetinfo parameter they use by 4.

If I understand correctly, ambient_level is internally divided by 4, correct? It seems to be a quite intrusive change (I'm thinking about the OXPs that modify it; if I'm not mistaken most of them don't have a maintainer anymore), compared to changing it to 0.25 in the config file. What's the idea behind this?

You are correct, it is internally reduced so that the 1.0 ambient_level has been recalibrated to a darker value. The idea is to improve general lighting in-game. Here is an example of Lave as it's been till now, as soon as you exit the station:

And here is what it looks like with this change:

Note a few things in these shots:
1. The second one has better contrast between lit and unlit parts (seen in the laser cannon). It is even more evident if you rotate the ship.
2. The first image looks more washed out.
3. This is quite important: The atmosphere is supposed to be slightly biased towards the blue color. This is not visible at all on the first pic, while it can be perceived as such on the bottom.
4. The dark side of the planet is indeed dark on the second pic, but too intensely lit on the first.

I think that the overall effect is worth it, especially if you use Perlin3D textures. Of course, if it is tested and people prefer the old way, it can easily be changed back or even be made a user defaults parameter.